Europa Nostra prize awarded to 8th century Byzantine church Agia Kyriaki on Naxos

The 8th-century Byzantine church of Agia Kyriaki on Naxos island is one of the winners of the 2018 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards, the European Commission announced on Tuesday.

The church contains 8th- and 9th-century wall paintings that were reconstructed by a joint Greek and Swiss team, the announcement said.

Also awarded the Europa Nostra prize was a collaborative project to restore the mosaics of the Transfiguration in an arch of the St. Catherine of Sinai’s basilica, and the reconstruction at Zographio, the Greek school in Istanbul.

The prizes will be presented at a ceremony in Berlin on June 22, during the first-ever European Cultural Heritage Summit, and will include EU high-level officials and leading heritage organisations. The ceremony will be co-hosted by European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics and renowned opera singer Placido Domingo, who is president of Europa Nostra.

Europa Nostra and the European Commission recognize 30 exemplary heritage accomplishments in the categories of Conservation, Research, Dedicated Service, and Education, Training and Awareness-Raising.

Organisations and individuals from 31 countries across Europe submitted a total of 163 applications for the 2018 edition of the Awards. The category of Conservation had the most entries (71), followed by Education, Training and Awareness-Raising (48), and Research and Dedicated Service to Heritage (22 each). Italy and Spain sent most entries (18 entries each), followed by Bulgaria and Germany (10 applications each), then by Greece and Serbia (9 entries each).